Elma

Might be cursing this but I think they'll be doing well to win a game before Hull at home on 19 November. West Ham away might be their best chance as Arsenal and Bournemouth are both flying.

Think they'll lose at Bournemouth. Might get a point from either West Ham or Arsenal before that. Could see them on 2 points after 11 games though. If I were a neutral I'd have them nailed on to go down, but still am worried that the others are creating a significant gap at the moment. Hull at home in game 12 could be interesting as to whether they have enough to beat those around them and keep the gap manageable.

Unfortunately none of the promoted clubs are covering themselves in glory this year. The mackems ambition at the moment should be to finish above the highest promoted club, currently Burnley on seven points, less than one a game. I know they don't look like they could win one game at the moment, never mind the two they would need to overtake Burnley, but that gap is still easily surmountable over thirty games. The problem last year for us (getting relegated on a number of points that in most seasons would have seen us stay up) was that both Watford and Bournemouth came up with decent management and had something about them. Both got over forty points and will again this year. Hull, Boro and Burnley are all poor teams who won't get to 38 points. This year 37 will keep you up and possibly even 35. That means they need 35 points from 30 games - 9 wins, 8 draws, 13 losses. Currently that would appear a tall order, but they've arguably only dropped six or seven points that you would have expected them get (3 vs Boro, 2 vs W Brom, 1 v Palace, 1 v Stoke), and picked up one they weren't expected to get at Soton. I would argue that if they were on 8 points now that would be par for the course. In saying all that, I don't see (m)any points for them in their next three games, but I won't start to think they might drop until we reach the halfway point and they are more than 6 points from safety (Burnley), whilst still turning in the sort of performances they are at the moment.

Perhaps Rafa is getting him to do what he had in mind for him when he originally signed him from Charlton? He must have seen something then in terms of turning him into a key player for his system. Obviously he never got the chance at Liverpool but they've now had a full pre-season together and hopefully things are starting to click.

Wouldn't mind getting a lower half Prem team in the cup, just to gauge our level. Although we lost a few quality players, only Townsend was really contributing regularly and we had only had him since January. We were relegated due to the ineptitude of McClaren coupled with a lack of support for him, leaving us with an unbalanced squad which was critically short across the back. Even despite that, we went down with a points total that would have kept us up the previous two years and indeed most seasons since the prem went to twenty teams. Now, with greater organisation and the confidence that winning brings, I'd fancy us against most of the bottom half. People think that because their is a league boundary between teams those above are automatically better, but I think this year there is a distinct overlap. Norwich too would fancy themselves to stay up in the current premiership group I imagine. I think the mackems, Hull and Boro all only have one point from the last 15. Could be a low total for survival this year.

remember it well, Ando says on TS tonight it was his first start. I was only 8 and my dad only ever took me to a couple of away games a year then - never missed at home though. Remember listening to it on the radio though and then watched the goals on The Big Match (?) the following day. That must have been the first time in my memory that we stuffed someone away from home, and didn't Kevin Carr save a pen?

My biggest complaint was against Villa - after putting decent pressure on the centre-half to the extent that Gayle was able to nip in and take the ball, he just stood and watched the 1 on 1. I was expecting a Rafa-drilled player to bust a gut to get alongside. Even if he were a yard or two back his presence would have made Gayle's job easier in that the keeper couldn't force Gayle wide whilst also covering off the square ball for a tap in. In the end Gayle hit Gollini but I thought it was just lazy from Diame. Am happy to give a player time to settle, but was disappointed in that. Suspect Rafa will rotate him out at the weekend, or soon if he doesn't improve. It's not like we don't have options.

In my early days of supporting the lads (early 80's) we hit the 90th minute at home to Fulham (?) I think 1-2 down and won 3-2 with Kenny Wharton grabbing the winner. Then of course there's the Leicester 2-4 to 5-4 with McGhee's late goal, but I think only the winner was in stoppage time for that one.

They got humped 3-0 at Birmingham too, although Brum have been better than expected so far.

We nearly always played midweek games on a Wednesday before this season The last time we were in the champ we were the only team playing home games on a Wednesday. Club preference. Probably makes sense for this set of fixtures anyway.

Some cracking results for us there like. Good late goals.

Not that he's my favourite journo/media person, but fair play to Colin Murray here. He read SackPardew.com and got it in spades. Went on a rant against him on radio that any of us would have been proud of, despite not being a fan iirc....

We're rapidly catching up to 2009/2010 now. After seven games then we were 5-1-1 (F10 A3). At the moment we're 5-0-2 (F16 A4). A win on Saturday and then first eight game form repeated over the season projects to 103.5 points. Excellent recovery after a poor start. For the record, game eight in 2009/2010 was a 3-1 home win over Plymouth. After a nice run of clean sheets I'd hate to concede, but that's being picky. Ultimately I'd take that and another three points now.

Impressive from Barnsley like. A couple of surprise packages up at the top with us early on.

Slightly concerned about splitting up the centre-half pairing, but happy with the front six. Still, gotta trust Rafa and if he's going rotate selection I guess that includes the spine too. Good to see Atsu making the bench.

Had to work late but watching that in the background took the edge off it. Great stuff. Was hoping for something like that before kick-off but was worried the mackems would dig out a performance from somewhere. Too early to say they are in real trouble but they have issues. Let's hope the three promoted clubs continue to pick up points and put more pressure on them.

Quite a few poor sides unfortunately. I'd agree if Defoe gets injured for any length of time though. The mackems would disagree as they seem to think a division barrier automatically makes one team better than another, but in terms of organisation and effectiveness we are much improved on last year - them not so much. Would fancy us to give the bottom six or seven in the prem a game now.

Great stuff....glad I was wrong a few posts back

Should be three or four this. They'll regret not putting this game away here.

Been there many times. It is a bit of a shithole but I love it. Very compact and always a good atmosphere. When living in London it was always the one I looked out for for that very reason. Well, that and the fact that prices were always reasonable compared to Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs. Was there when we were 3-0 down early doors and just sung all game. Also there for the 2-1 Beardsley volley and remembering that Sellars had to grab an inhaler from the dugout whilst sprinting up and down trying to cover the fullback. Immensely proud of the club on both occasions, for very different reasons.

Only due to Stojkovic. Wonderful save he made. No goalline tech in the Champ - would have been interesting.

Yes, yes they have. How the hell did he miss that? I thought he was clinical at this level?

Just switched on and saw the Ipswich pen.1-1 would be decent for us.

An even longer shot.. Any Ukrainian channels showing the match? Bizarrely, despite Turkey being football mad I'm not aware of any TV channels here that have the rights to the Championship. Fortunately I can stream my dad's Sky Go via VPN so I'll still get to watch it. However, if there are any other Turkish (Istanbul) based fans out there who know of a pub who have it (probably streamed) and want to meet up to watch it then pm me.

To Edinburgh from Istanbul....he's just returning home after the failed medical here (Istanbul) I guess. That's a Turkish plane behind him and he flew out of Edinburgh originally, what with Edinburgh being the closest airport to Newcastle that Turkish operate from.